Hawaii Cruise
March 13, 2001 to June 2, 2001
Monterey to Hawaii and back
Logbook

March 17, 2001: Leg 1; Day 5

George Matsumoto at the main camera controls in the control room.

Log Entry: 32 52.29 N, 131 17.49W 0700 hours
Well,getting that extra hour of sleep was nice. We are on station right now about 700 nautical miles from Moss Landing. We are about 1/3 of the way to Hawaii now and are starting our every other day of science operations schedule. The sky is overcast, we are in a heavy fog bank right now. The water temperature remains cold, surface water is about 11 C, although we passed over a few fronts yesterday that were up to 14.5 C. The winds are down to about 13 knots with a 2-5 foot swell passing by. Beautiful weather for diving! We will launch a CTD here down to 1,000 meters and then start our ROV dive at 0900 hours. Once the ROV gets into the water, we (Rob Sherlock, Steve Haddock, Kim Reisenbichler, and George Matsumoto) will get into our rigid hull inflatable boat and go SCUBA diving! Kevin Raskoff is fighting a cold and won't be joining us this morning.

The boat made great time last night and we are still slightly ahead of schedule. We just got the latest NCAA results - a night of upsets it looks like. More news later...

1420 hours (1520 PST)
On station still. We are currently at 800 meters with the ROV taking some spectacular frame grabs that I'll send tonight. We had a great bluewater dive today, visibility was about 30 meters or so. Gorgeous blue water with lots of things to look at and collect. Weather is still holding and the sun is trying very hard to break through.

Here is the view from the bridge this morning. Foggy skies, no white caps and a small swell. Almost perfect diving weather, but the water is still cold. BRRRR.

This is a view of the heating/cooling control system that is in every room on the boat. This means that we have control over the temperature and argue only with our roommate about the optimum room temperature. Some like it cold (60F is on the cold side), most keep it between 65 and 70F.

Here is our current position. The ship is where the tip of the pencil is and you can see Hawaii down in the lower left.

Rob Sherlock joined Doug Alexander in the kitchen last night making his infamous Pilaf ala Sherlock for the crew to enjoy.

Returning from a successful bluewater dive.

The boat launch with the four intrepid divers and Shawn Osborn at the boat controls.

Buck Reynolds, Dan Chamberlain, George Matsumoto, Rob Sherlock, Kim Reisenbichler, Steven Haddock, Kevin Raskoff, and Bruce Robison (left to right) in the control room during one of the midwater transects.